The South by Southwest Film Festival takes place in Austin, Texas, every spring. The festival, which grew out of the SXSW Music Festival, one of the largest music festivals in the U.S., has become one of the world's premiere film festivals know for its selection of independent gems and up-and-coming first-time filmmakers. The festival screens about 150 - 200 of the best independent films produced during the previous year, as well as works from established directors who have inspired the latest generation of filmmakers.
A new wave or back to the basics? Call it "Mumble core" or just returning to the roots of American independent filmmaking, these filmmakers and actors are tackling weighty issues without frills, but with an incredible amount of wit, irony and improvisation. Alex Karpovsky chats about WOODPECKER, which follows a man on a quest for discovery in a community of fanatical birdwatchers. Greta Gerwig enlightens us about the honest and heart-breaking, NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS, her directorial debut. She also joins actress and first-time director Mary Bronstein and the cast of YEAST to discuss the film about abnormal female relationships. Lastly, director Robert Byington and cast discuss RSO [REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER], a hilarious film following one man after his recent release from prison.
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Today we explored memory and death through documentary and docu-drama. We spoke with Tommy Davis about his chilling documentary, ONE MINUTE TO NINE, which follows a domestic violence victim five days before she goes to jail for the murder of her husband. In Celia Maysles’s very personal film, WILD BLUE YONDER, the director documents her painful effort to discover the father she hardly knew, the great filmmaker David Maysles. Lastly, we chat with director Daniel Stamm about his fiction, A NECESSARY DEATH, which follows a group of film school students who place an add to follow a suicidal person from prep to the final act.
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We love documentaries! And so does South by Southwest. We started off speaking with director Caroline Suh and producer Erika Frankel about FRONTRUNNERS, a campaign film shot in Stuyvesant High School in New York City; one of the most prestigious high schools in the country. Next, we cross the border with INTIMIDAD. Co-director Ashley Sabin discusses the film which deals with one family's fight to stay together in poverty-stricken Mexico. Director Negin Farsad and the doc's main character, MC Frontalot, talk about NERDCORE RISING, a film exposing the new wave of dork rock, hip-hop. We finished up with director Jay Delaney, whose documentary NOT ANOTHER BIGFOOT MOVIE follows two charmingly amateur bigfoot researchers in their quest to proove the existence of the elusive creature.
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First time directors were our focus at the festival today. Son of the famed Mexican director, Jonas Cuaron, makes his debut with AÑO UÑA, a fictional feature film he constructed from real photographs he took over a year. Greg Takoudes premieres with UP WITH ME, an urban drama he wrote and shot with the real life Harlem teens he cast in the film. Actor Mark Webber makes his directorial debut with EXPLICIT ILLS, a film, as he simply puts it, "about love, drugs, and poverty in Philadelphia". Lastly, the directors and hilarious cast of THE MARCONI BROS., relived us of our duties and interviewed themselves about their charming comedy of two brothers who leave their family carpet-installing business to pursue wedding videography.
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Today was a big day. We saw films with skydiving nuns, live animation, quarter-life crisis, and raging bulls. Director Harmony Korine discusses MISTER LONELY, his first film in 8 years about a dedicated commune of professional impersonators and a group of devoted nuns in Panama. Director Emily Hubley and actor Kevin Corrigan broke down for us the surreal world of TOE TACTIC. Directors Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs discuss their drama set in the marijuana growing capital of the U.S., HUMBOLDT COUNTY. Finally, directors Nina Seavey and Stephen Higgins follow a famous, nearly 100 fights a year bullfighter in their doc MATADOR.
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For the second day of the festival we caught up with three groups of two men director teams, or well, almost three groups of two. We started off chatting with Robb Moss and Peter Galison, two Harvard professors whose film SECRECY explores the reasons and repercussions behind the U.S. government’s history of withholding information. Next, we met with one half of a brother filmmaking duo. Nathan Zellner, who with his brother David, wrote, directed and starred in their brilliantly comedic film about one man’s breakdown after the death of his cat. We finished the day with Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, two directors who document a camp in California, which with the help of writers and Iraqi “actors”, replicates Iraqi villages to simulate warfare.
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It was only appropriate that we started the first day of the festival chatting with those behind the opening night film of the festival. Director Robert Luketic, whose film "21" received this special honor of anointing the fest, along with up-and-coming lead actor Jim Sturgess, chatted with us about the new film which tells the true story of a group of M.I.T students who took Vegas for millions. Next, we made a quick stop at the Austin airport to pick up our good friend, and first time filmmaker, Josh Weinstein. Premiering at the festival is his documentary "Flying On One Engine", which follows an Indian-American surgeon who, despite critical illness, travels to India to perform a record-breaking number of cleft lip operations.
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